EASTENDERS was once the most-watched soap on TV, with families gathering around the telly eager to watch the outcome after the previous night’s “doof doof” cliffhanger ending.
But the future of the ailing BBC soap looks uncertain after a major TV schedule shake-up.
ITV has all but declared war on the southern soap by announcing Coronation Street and Emmerdale will now air later in the evenings – clashing with their Walford rival.
ITV’s head of continuing drama John Whiston said: “With Coronation Street bursting at the seams with fantastic story and character, the new format gives the show a brilliant new canvas on which to shine.
“And Emmerdale will do what it does best in this new time slot where viewers can continue to enjoy the dramatic goings-on in the Dales.”
It’s yet another blow for EastEnders, which recently lost two of its biggest names in Adam Woodyatt – who played Ian Beale – and Mick Carter actor Danny Dyer.
Ratings are also on the decline, plunging to just 2million viewers at various points last year – a far cry from the 30million who tuned in to see “Dirty” Den hand divorce papers to Angie in the show’s mid-Eighties heyday.
Here we take a look at all the signs EastEnders is about to do a Barry and be pushed off the edge of a cliff…
Shorter eps and Covid schedules
The pandemic forced all UK soaps to halt production. While Corrie never went off air – reducing its output from six to three episodes a week instead – EastEnders disappeared for three months.
When it returned, episodes were reduced to 20 minutes from their usual half-hour due to filming restrictions, meaning they were often shown at awkward times like 7:35pm or 8:05pm.
Last year BBC Drama boss Piers Wenger blamed this for EastEnders’ plummeting ratings.
“It being scheduled off-junction and it not being the full half-hour has impacted its audience,” he said.
“EastEnders has always been a BBC half-hour, whereas Corrie and Emmerdale are commercial half-hours and, therefore, shorter so they’ve been impacted slightly less by shooting with COVID protocols, but we are working to get back to [it].”
Gong drought
The battle for Best Soap at the Inside Soap Awards used to be hotly contested, with EastEnders scooping the gong every year from 2001 to 2014, bar two occasions when it was won by Corrie and Emmerdale.
However, in recent years, EastEnders has barely had a look in – with Hollyoaks beating them in 2019.
Corrie absolutely dominated at last year’s event – winning the awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Newcomer, Funniest Performance, Best Partnership, Best Storyline and Best Soap.
Emmerdale won Best Villain and Best Family, with EastEnders taking home an award that sounded like it was made just for showing up – Best Feel-good Moment.
They didn’t fare much better at the NTAs last year, with Corrie scooping the Serial Drama and Serial Drama Performance gongs.
Big name departures
While most of Corrie’s veteran stars are still going strong – William Roache has played Ken Barlow since the show began and Barbara Knox still puts in a shift as Rita Sullivan – EastEnders has few of its big names left.
Stalwart Adam Woodyatt, who plays Ian Beale, left the show last year for ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, and the show’s biggest paid star Danny Dyer (Mick Carter) has announced he’s off soon, too.
Meanwhile June Brown, who played Dot Cotton on the soap from 1985, quietly left the show in 2020 too.
Even the return of the iconic character everyone loves to hate, Janine Butcher, hasn’t been enough for the show’s ratings to rocket.
Too much misery
Unlike Corrie’s clever mix of light and shade, EastEnders has always been renowned for its misery, so there’s nothing new there.
But, during a pandemic, death and tears isn’t exactly what you want.
Its current big storylines focus on male breast cancer and domestic abuse – which, while worthy, are unavoidably depressing.
Where Emmerdale and Corrie excel is dropping a few laughs into its serious scenes (think mad serial killer Meena Jutla who comes out with some hilarious one-liners) or juxtaposing them with lighter plotlines.
Loss of big name producer
Following her incredible work on Corrie and Emmerdale, hiring “soap awards magnet” Kate Oates as executive producer in 2018 was a big coup for EastEnders.
But she left a year later to take up a role as Head of Continuing Drama at BBC Studios – only remaining in creative control of EastEnders.
Former Holby City producer Chris Clenshaw has recently started as executive producer, taking over from Jon Sen.
Meanwhile Corrie’s producer is Iain MacCleod, who was a steady hand at Hollyoaks, and then Emmerdale, for years.
‘Worst Christmas episode ever’
The EastEnders Christmas Day episode used to be a staple part of the day, with bombs always being dropped over the turkey dinner.
Some of its most iconic episodes aired over the festive period, including when the Branning family all found out Bradley’s wife Stacey Slater had been having an affair with his dad Max Branning via a cringe home video.
However the 2021 Christmas episode failed to impress disappointed viewers, who’d been expecting serial killer Gray Atkins to be exposed after two long years.
While his new wife Chelsea Atkins discovered the truth about him killing his first wife Chantelle at the end of the episode, it wasn’t the explosive reveal fans have become accustomed to.
And on top of that, a double wedding happened – off-screen.
Fans slammed it on social media, calling it the worst ever.
One raged: “What the hell was that?!? Where were the two ‘actual’ weddings… why did not a single one of them walk down the aisle?!?”
A second wrote: “So disappointed with #EastEnders Christmas day that was so boring! Gray will live to kill another day lol, Richie will save Phil and Tom is Dotty’s dad… I think that episode has to be the worst Christmas episode ever!”
By contrast, Corrie opted for a light-hearted festive episode, while Emmerdale saw the Woolpack pub explode – juxtaposed with a runaway turkey.
Unlikeable characters and woke storylines
Another problem with EastEnders is its increasingly woke storylines.
Gone are the days of its gritty whodunnits – now it’s all about Tiffany Butcher’s cosmetic surgery addiction, Nancy secretly ordering cannabis oil and a 12-year-old trying to convince her dad’s partner to go vegan.
The sheer volume of these bland storylines amounts to overkill, and can come across as preaching.
And for a show which prides itself on “faaaamily”, few of its big family dynasties remain – unlike in Corrie and Emmerdale where the Platts, the Barlows and the Dingles still dominate storylines.
Ex-Enders star Peter Dean – who played the original Pete Beale in the 80s and 90s – took aim at the soap in 2020 for having too many characters who spend all their time rowing.
He said: “We started off with 15 characters, maybe one or two more, now you get people turn up and you don’t see them for about five weeks. Then they turn back up in it for a couple of weeks and then they disappear again.
“Its charm was actual families, now it’s families but they’re all arguing, people just want to see the comedy of it and that, or the social comment of it, now everyone is having a row with this one or shouting at this one.”
He added: “The writers now, they just want to know about rapes and what goes on in the world and people arguing and fighting.”
